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Monday, August 10, 2009

School shock!

I experienced my first fling inside a Malaysian school this morning and had the shock of my life. I left with a bad, bad taste in my mouth.

It was my sister-in-law's (Florina) first day at her new school, SMK Methodist All Girls, here in Kuantan. We met one of the assistant headmistresses, and right from the offset she was like an insolent, erupting volcano. She spoke in a very intimidating way to Florina even while my wife and I, as guardians, were there beside her. She seemed happy to delve into family history problems oblivious to how her on-the-spot questions were extremely sensitive and inappropriate, reducing poor Florina to tears.

Her attitude was brim with arrogance and rudeness. I felt very much like an abandoned piece of excrement on the street, left to slowly decay and waste away into nothing.

It was quite a shock to my system so I verbally challenged her when Florina wasn't quite sure how to answer this impertinent pedagogue. She mentioned how students nowadays can pass exams with straight A's yet still can't talk, and I wondered if she had ever considered that it might be impudent people like herself, who are the cause of this.

And then there was the commotion about a diminutive hair clip which was the right colour, but after listening to a laughable example of a woman's questionable eligibility for a job if she was wearing ten such accessories, we were told that she couldn't wear just that one hair clip! She then proceeded to put the offending hair clip in her own crop of frizzy hair to which I remarked, "That looks quite nice!" That was the one funny moment, well, for me at least! The answer was still 'No.'

I'm not opposed to setting rules or being strict, but there's a certain dignity and respect to which they can be presented, and to which the lawgiver is respected in turn.

There was a sense of deep injustice as my wife and I left the school premises and drove back home. And injustice only breeds contempt.

The teacher concluded by saying this: "I hope I never see you again." Therefore, if Urai obeys the school rules and keeps out of trouble, she will never have to come face-to-face with that headmistress again, so that's the good part!